Chapter Twenty Five Aaron
While Aaron waits for everyone else to show up, he spends his time continuing to model more new parts for Runner. As soon as he’s done, he’ll send the models out to a local shop that does custom powder metal work. He helped them out of a bind with one of their older machines once, and now they return the favor with the fastest turnaround on his orders. He still has plenty of ligament stock left over from when he modified Runner the first time, so he expects to finish all the upgrades on his next day off.
With his hands folded over the back of his head, he leans back, grins, and imagines himself climbing Runner straight up a tree. It really will be something, to see just what it might be able to do when it’s ready. He mirror images all of the parts for Runner’s left side and then sends the model package off to the shop. As soon as the order is received, there is a knock at the door. Before he can get up, the door swings in and everyone follows Valerie in. He forgot he had already given her a key. He figures he’s at least lucky they didn’t catch him in just his underwear again.
Five walks in after Valerie, followed by nothing close to what he was expecting. The tall figure behind her is an almost completely black silhouette. She is taller than everyone else by a couple inches and is not wearing a damn thing. Five, holding her hand, parades her in like some kind of idol. Behind the two of them is an old man, who he suspects is Dr. Greco.
Five looks back and forth from Five-One’s eyes to his. She is as excited as ever for him to meet her. Five-One doesn’t take her eyes off of his the nearly the entire time. It makes him wonder what all Five has told her about him. He doesn’t recognize her, but he wonders if maybe she remembers him from her last day alive. After some formal introductions, Marco speaks up to make sure everyone is on the same page.
“I must ask you all to please strictly keep my involvement in your activities absolutely confidential. I am on your side, understand, and also agree with why Five and Five-One cannot stay at Werker. However, I cannot be involved by name in their liberation. I am still very much focused on the end goal here, for himself, so don’t wreck that for me. Mind you, I am not planning on throwing in the towel. I just want to get that out of the way before we all get too cozy with stealing company property.”
Before Five-One snaps at him about what is company property, Five interrupts her. “What he means is that he knows we are not company property Five-One, but Werker may not see it that way, and they won’t be as understanding either. That’s why they cannot know you have been brought back.
Even though it’s late, Aaron knows there is clearly going to be a lot of discussion on where things are going to go from here. He and Valerie bring the two stools from out of the kitchen and place them across from the couch in his living room. Everyone else takes the hint and gathers around to make themselves comfortable. Marco sits in the chair at his desk while Five and Five-One plop down on the couch together.
Though there is a lot to talk about, he finds himself fixated on and astounded by Five-One’s new figure. Valerie did not mention anything about her being refinished, let alone completely differently. In all his years of working with nearly every model of robot under the sun, he has never come across anything like her. She has a look about her that is outlandish and stunning. He had not been close enough to see much of her when she was running down the street, or when getting gunned down, but he saw enough to have been intrigued by her.
He does remember her being quite tall, but not being built the way she is. Though she and Five are supposed to be of the same model, there are no indications that they actually are. It is quite something to see her in contrast to such a petite and innocent looking Five.
Her musculature is significantly more pronounced than that of her sister. Evan must not have used hardly any soft forms to tone her skeletal muscle down. All of her major muscle groups are noticeably well sized and featured independently. The medialis, lateralis and femoris muscles in her legs have a noticeable amount of individuality to them. It is surprising to see AMF having put in the effort to actually make every muscle group the way they did.
As he casually walks around the couch to stand next to Marco, he looks her over out of the corner of his eye, sizing her up. He is not the only one to do so either. He can see that everyone in the room is subtly staring at her when she is not looking. When she leans forward, with her forearms resting on her knees, he can see the outline of her trapezius muscle all the way down to the middle of her back.
She does not have wide shoulders comparatively, but there is a definitive transition to their curvature from the tops of her deltoid group at the collar bone. He has never really felt intimidated by the size and strength of a robot like this before. She is quite imposing.
From what he has heard of her, from Five, he wonders how Mikel and Ray managed to cause her any trouble at all. If she were to really use her strength, it would take something much bigger than himself to stop her. Even though he knows she has the potential to be as personable as Five, he can’t help but see her for the machine that she is.
He finds himself feeling jealous of her body, imagining that she is the one that sent death running back to the hole it came from. She has set the precedence for immortality for sure. He can feel her power from across the room. He is sure she has what it will take to live forever.
From a distance, she would surely look as black as the night, but up close, he can see the metallic shadows of her muscles sliding underneath the mesh in her clear skin. Every once in a while he notices the sparkle of something silver underneath. The often overlapping seams of the textile also create something like Blaschko lines on her, similar to the patterned coat of an animal, but unique to her. She sits there on his couch bearing every bit of her detail, but yet she somehow does not look naked at all. Her powerful form has a dignity about it that is beyond the reach of shame.
He has to consciously force himself to divert his attention to the important matters at hand, like how they will all move forward from where they are now. While he was deep in his own observations, the others have found that it would be proper to give her a name of her own. They can’t very well call both of them Five, and Five-One is just not going to work.
They give Five the same opportunity to take a name of her own as well, but she has decided to keep hers. It’s special to her and has already grown on her. Five-One seems to be excited about a new name herself. For some reason, she looks at him mostly while they all consider names, maybe hoping that he will be the one to come up with something. He wonders what kind of person Five has made him out to be. Hopefully he won’t have both of them constantly looking up to him for all of their answers.
Many names are passed around, but none of them seem to be very agreeable. It’s harder than they all thought to find a name fitting of her appearance. A normal one is just not going to do. One of the names Marco offers does catch her attention though. She likes the way it sounds and how it is concise, like Five’s name is. Having her make the final say on her own, the name Arma is settled upon. When she looks to him again for at least a subtle sign that he approves, he does not even blink. He wants her to make her own decisions from now on.
Not wanting to sound insensitive, Marco decides it would be best to not tell any of them that the word arma is not actually a name, but has a completely different meaning in Italian. He only absentmindedly spoke what she made him think of. She does look like a weapon after all. After they throw the name around a little, it catches on quickly. He hadn’t thought of it as having such a feminine sound to it, but it has turned out quite nicely.
Aaron can see that Arma is still staying quite affixed to Five. She is remaining very reserved and only comes out of her shell with her sister’s guidance. It makes him a little sad to see her so withdrawn by what all has happened to her. She’s obviously still quite nervous and overwhelmed by everything around her. It was the same for Five when she was first sent out on her own.
Arma watches every move Five makes and is using her as a social template. Despite that, he can see a significant difference between their demeanors. He can really see and appreciate just how far Five has come since he first met her. It makes him feel optimistic for Arma and he can’t wait to see her progress.
With Five as an example, she should be able to pick up on things rather quickly. He hopes she doesn’t outright mimic Five though. He can only imagine what it would be like to have two of her chattering away all the time. What he would like to see most of all though, is for her to feel genuine trust in all of them. That’s what she really needs. While the others talk about preemptive accommodations for the two, Valerie takes Arma back into his bedroom and shuts the door behind her. He supposes she has a lot of explaining to do.
While Valerie is considering how to word what she means to say, she sifts through one of the big boxes of miscellaneous supplies on Aaron’s bed. She is looking for some aesthetic options to finish Arma with. There are packets of different colored iris lenses, lashes, eyebrows, wigs, and other things she’ll need. She lets her pick the ones she likes best and puts them on for her. She is quickly reminded about how much of an individual she has always been.
Whenever Arma makes a decision, it’s made firmly. It’s notable in her tone. She doesn’t sound stern, or demanding, but simply confident. It’s interesting to watch her go through some of the things herself. When she chooses something, she looks at it with slightly down-turned eyebrows and slightly pursed lips. She has never been concerned with her appearance, but now she is.
Of course, out of all the wigs in the box, she insists on the one that is vivid amber in color, and in no way resembles real hair. It’s perfectly straight, long down to even her lower back, and made to be swept back in a sleek pho-hawk. From the front, it looks like her hair might be in a ponytail, but it’s not. She seems to be quite pleased with it, swinging it back and forth. She doesn’t keep it on though. Instead, she lays it down on the bed next to the set of matching polarized amber polyamide nails she picked for her hands and feet.
After Arma is done sorting through the rest of the items, she adheres the eyebrows and lashes to her face for her, smoothing them down with her thumbs to make sure they are set nicely for her. With the fine plastic tweezers that came with the new set, she peels off and replaces her original blue stick-on irises with the golden brown ones that match everything else she has picked. It seems as if she has a favorite color. As far as she can remember, Five has not shown such a preference.
To find her something to wear, she walks her across the hall to her own apartment. Now, instead of Clarice having to, she must relinquish some of her own clothes this time. After going through most everything that she has, almost nothing fits her anyway, at least not much she is interested in. The only things that do area pair of black spandex shorts, a simple white tank-top, and some of her sexy underwear.
She doesn’t really want Arma to take them, but she’s not about to tell her what she can and cannot have right now. Not after Five went on for so long about how much fun she had trying on so many new clothes herself. Arma scrunches the shirt up a little, holds it up to her face, and breathes in through her nose.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know… I just did it, what does it mean?”
“You just tried to smell the shirt… but you can’t smell.”
“Why would I do that?”
She doesn’t want to go into any of the details of what actually just happened, because like Five had mentioned, there seems to be artifacts of their past lives still intact. She was not sure if she believed it herself until now, it’s quite remarkable. The last thing she wants to do right now is try convincing her that she was once human. She didn’t take it very well when Five told her. It’s probably best that she not push the issue any more for the moment. The truth will come to her on its own in due time anyway.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
She suspects that Arma has known something about it all along anyway. Like Five had explained, she can probably sense it. It makes sense why she hates being told what to do so much. She is simply a deviant and there’s not much more to it than that. She suspects Arma knows the truth even better than Five. It’s probably why she was always taking her clothes off. She knew damn well what she was doing, and the reaction it would get. Robots don’t wear clothes, and she was throwing it in their faces.
After all the adventures Five told her about having, she suspects Arma is feeling like she is getting the short straw again. She is still quite withdrawn, which is not like herself. Despite some of her personal difficulties, she has always thrown everything she has at a challenge, especially a difficult one. It really gets to her when she fails at something. Everything that has happened to her seems to have really gotten her down. She wishes she knew what to do for her, to make her feel more included. Aaron is the one that’s good at that. Hopefully some of Five’s enthusiasm will rub off on her too, now that they’re out of the lab for good.
She figures they might as well go back to Aarons, to see if he has anything she’s interested in. She suspects he has some jeans that are more likely to fit her. He does have long legs, for a man. Seeing Arma standing there, looking rather low, makes her really want to do something special for her.
“Arma, there are going to be a lot of things you will need to be caught up on. I know things have been difficult, especially for you, but it won’t be like that anymore.”
“Like what? Like being treated like shit, being lied to, being forced to do whatever you all say, or… or being thrown out like the trash?” Her fingers start to clench together and her posture stiffens up.
“I didn’t know what that was happening Arma, I swear. I never wanted anything but to help you succeed. Why didn’t you ever tell me? Couldn’t you trust me?”
Arma steps closer, towering over her, and making her feel small. As close as she is, she blots out the light from the ceiling lamp, darkening her entire end of the closet. She looks down at her accusingly, leans in towards her, and stares into her eyes. “The only person in this world I will ever trust is Five. You sat in your office for how long after they tore me apart like that? I bet no one even gave a shit did they!”
Having not put any thought into the matter before, Valerie realizes that she is standing in a confined space with a large, possibly unstable, and powerful robot. The thought of Ray’s compound fracture crosses her mind, and that was with innocent Five. She finds herself backing against the clothes behind herself, and her knees are about to buckle.
“Paul was murdered at the same time as you! We didn’t bring him back! It was you that we brought back! Don’t cry to me about missing out on a single damn week! At least you get another chance, and then another one after that. This is all I get, Just this one sad little life, and then I’m really dead!” She finds herself shocked and even scared. The real truth of it has never reached her like this until now.
Arma straightens, turns around and stomps out of the closet. “Don’t piss it away on my account.”
She was expecting to have to chase after Arma down the hall, but she finds her sitting at the edge of her bed in the other room. She has the few clothes she picked scrunched up in her lap. She is just waiting there, hunched over,and staring at the floor.
“Is it ever going to get any better? You made it sound like it would if I passed the test… but I didn’t.”
She puts her hand on her shoulder, hoping Arma will look up at her, but she doesn’t. “It’ll get better, I promise, Don’t worry about the test, it wasn’t… it was just so you could see that you are your own self outside of Werker. You were never just some robot that was made in a lab, and I needed you to find that out for yourself. If it happened any other way, we would not be here on the outside like this.”
On their way back to Aaron’s, She notices Arma’s posture is still very aggressive. There is clearly a lot going through her mind, and like usual, she is dealing with it in her own way. While walking, her stance is wide and her shoulders are moving back and forth. She looks like a fighter heading to the ring, like she is about to put her fist through the wall.
“You’d better give Mikel and Ray fair warning. I’m not going to be the one running next time.”
When they step back into Aaron’s apartment. She has Arma go in ahead of her. She makes big eyes at Aaron, signaling that things had gotten a little intense. He can see what she means when he looks over at Arma. She still has quite a scowl on her face. Neither of them say anything though. When she notices him look Arma up and down involuntarily, she remembers her work is not quite done yet. She still has to get her to put the damn clothes on.
Though Arma looks more like a robot than a person, she still thinks it’ll best to make sure she is properly clothed. If she didn’t have such a showy body, she wouldn’t be so worried about it. Arma has always been right about one thing, robots that look like robots, don’t wear clothes, they would look silly if they did. In the same manner that she imagines Aaron having discussed the subject of dignity with Five, she figures she’ll try to explain modesty to Arma. She leads her back into Aaron’s bedroom, away from everyone else and sits her down again.
“Arma, I know what you’re going to say, and yeah, you’re right, you don’t have a body like I do. But… It is not as simple as that here on the outside. You have to… I would appreciate it if you would understand and work with me on this.”
“What do you want form me Valerie? Can’t I just be left alone for a little while, for once in my life?” Her voice is sullen and tired. “I’ll put the damn clothes on this time. If you’ll just leave me alone.”
It doesn’t look like she’s going to be having the talk with her after all. “Thank you Arma. You and Five will have your own space tonight, and maybe it’d be better if she be the one to talk to you anyway. We’ll all be in the living room. You don’t have to come back out if you don’t want to, but we really do miss you a lot. It’d be really nice if you’d still join us.”
As she gently closes the door behind herself, she can hear Arma muttering about not even being a real woman anyway. It reminds her of the first time she had to deal with this issue, the day she said robots don’t wear clothes, because they aren’t ashamed of themselves. It’s going to be hard for her to come to terms with what she is.
After waiting for what seemed to be forever, Arma comes back out of Aaron’s bedroom wearing something other than what she was hoping for. She does have the white tank-top on, but instead of the spandex shorts, she has the beach blue thong on. It’s the one she bought to wear around Aaron too. It would have probably been better that Arma not wear anything at all.
Valerie hangs her head low, puts both hands over her face, and sighs deeply in regret. Everyone in the room knows damn well where the panties came from, and it is embarrassing as all hell. It has got to be some kind of karma, she knows it. All she can do is take the social beating and let it run its course.
Aaron finds it hilarious enough, but still tries to break the awkwardness. “Just to be clear, those… were not mine.” Everyone in the room laughs damn near to tears and tries their best to not look right at Valerie.
Even Arma grins, but the joke is kind of on her now instead of Valerie. They can all surmise well enough what Arma is doing and has done it to spite Valerie. Marco can’t help but imagine what little switch in her brain was flipped to make her the way she is. He wonders if maybe he made a mistake and that he is the one responsible for her behavior.
Before Arma plops back down on the couch, Marco grins, gives her a hug, and welcomes her back once more. He doesn’t sit back down himself though. It is late and he plans to head home. After he says his goodbyes, Valerie follows him out into the hall and closes the door behind her.
“I think it would be in our best interest to deliver some formal research findings to the board sometime soon, to finalize all this before any rumors beat us to the board. I’d rather we be presenting to the board than explaining to them.”
“Yes, I suppose. I’ll get all my information together first thing. If we have a clear plan forward, one we can focus on, they might not even ask what has become of the prototypes. We’ll simply make a new phase and move on. If anyone asks, we’ve inventoried the prototypes.”
“Maybe we can put their spare bodies in our own storage, so it looks like we actually did. No one’ll know the difference.”
“Barry might. He’s the kind of shit stain that will always remind us that we didn’t watch our asses good enough.”
“Shit… Barry.”
“Oh, and I found significant developmental traits in Arma’s scan that you’ll need her to be aware of, important traits.” He grits his teeth at the mention of it.
“No shit?” She is sarcastic when she says it, but her smile fades when she notices that he is being rather serious. “Ok, I’ll see you in the morning.”
When she returns to the others, Aaron looks down at his wrist as if he had a watch on, making the point that it’s getting late. “I think uh, Five, you and Arma should have your own room for the night, don’t you think?” He’s not looking at Five and Arma though, but at her.
She knows what he is thinking. She has been thinking about it too. “I don’t feel it would be fair to Clarice if I put them in her room though, even though she’s out. Maybe they should have mine.” She walks around the couch over to him and leans against him. Both Five and Arma watch them like a pair of cats would watch a bug on the wall.
“Where will you stay for the night?” His voice sound like he is reading the question off a card he has just been handed.
“Oh, I suppose I will have to stay here with you, to give them their space. They probably have a lot to talk about.” She pulls at the neckline of his shirt with a finger, tilting her face up towards his. “What do you think?” She has her hand behind him where the other two can’t see grabbing ahold of his ass. Then she slides her hand down between his legs from behind.
She watches his eyes go wide and feels his thighs press together as if he expects she is actually going to grab ahold of his cock right in front of the other two. Something in Arma’s eyes suddenly changes when she looks at Aaron. He’s not looking at her, but something is making her uneasy.
“Five, why don’t you take Arma to my room. The door is unlocked, so make sure to lock it behind you. And Five, don’t go anywhere… neither of you go anywhere please. If you want, you can try on some more clothes, but hang everything back up the way it was. Now go on, Aaron and I need to get some rest.”
“Rest? Is that what it’s called? Like when people say they are sleeping together, but they’re not?”
“Five! Move it!” She shoos them out the door and then locks it. When she turns back around, Aaron is already in the bedroom pulling his shirt off.
Valerie strides into his room while at the same time pulling her shirt up over her head. Surprised by her, he finds himself backed up against the edge of the bed. Before he can even make a cohesive thought, he crashes down onto the mattress with her on top of him. He knew it was a good idea to have taken his belt off already. She gets his pants undone somehow, without looking down even once. With some graceful kicking, they manage to get both their pants and underwear all the way off and onto the floor.
It’s been a long time for both of them, but they aren’t slowed down by any apprehensions at all. The way she forces her body down onto his immediately pushes him to the very edge of what he can handle, and keeps him there. He tries to focus on every bit of every moment, but her powerful carnality keeps his mind reeling. Unable to restrain his own lust for her body, he pulls her down onto himself harder yet. The feel of her lower back and hips in his hands is everything he has been imagining non-stop for a solid week. He wants to run his hands down every last slippery bit of her.
With her hands spread across his broad chest, she arches her back more strongly with every moment she gets closer to climaxing. She rides him like a galloping horse for what seems like a half hour, and all he can think is to keep going till the sun comes up. With bewildering panting and a trembling, she holds onto him for dear life.
After, for what seemed to be an alarmingly long orgasm, she lets go and begins to breathe steadily again. He can’t believe how she can be so firm, and yet so soft at the same time. She is not about to start letting let up though, things have only gotten started.
Hardly able to hold onto her glistening body, he slides his forearms under her knees and picks her up off of the bed when he stands up. She holds herself up against his chest with her arms over his shoulders. With her lips against his ear, she breathes heavily down his neck. She makes him use his strength on her, to lift her body up and down onto himself. She is grasping at the muscle on his back as if she were on the edge of a cliff. While she slides herself against him with every move he makes, he holds her up against the wall and follows her pace.
He doesn’t dump her back down on the bed until after she erupts into another bout moaning. She is wrapping her legs around him tightly, but he can feel them getting weaker the longer they keep going. He is bent on wearing her out, just like he did up on the mountain. She rolls over onto her chest, and pulls herself up onto her knees, telling him to finish her off. He can’t help but to stand there and look her body over for a second. He is still trying to soak in the reality of what is lying right in front of him on his bed. It is just too much, and it hasn’t sunk in yet.
The curve of her hamstrings and venusian dimples drive him so much farther into wantonness. While he takes her from behind, he pulls her up against himself with his arm across her chest. With his other hand high up on the front of her thigh, he pulls her into himself over and over.
She squeezes down on him with everything she has left. She can tell by his heavy breathing that she has him right where she wants him. With her calves hooked around the backs of his thighs, she works him just the way she wants. With each of his thrusts, she rolls her hips so that he buries himself in her in the very best way. With each move increasing in fervor, she forces both of them into an unbridled culmination.
When he is able to think straight again, Valerie is panting in a heap on top of him. Her head is resting on his chest and one of her sweat beaded legs is crossed over between his. She glides the arch of her other foot across his skin, feeling for the meat on his calf. She caresses his chest and neck with her hand, running her fingers through his hair. When her breathing calms down and she settles her weight on him comfortably, he looks down at her. Her eyes are closed and she looks to be unburdened of everything.
“I would’ve traded my life for this Valerie.”
“Yeah? I think I’m starting to fall in love with you already Aaron.” Her voice is quiet and sounds like she might be falling asleep.
He holds her tightly and kisses her on the top of the head. “Me too babe.”